Siargao

Day 279 – Crash and burn

The kind lady owner of Mondsee Land Resort who was heading back to Cebu as well gave us a ride to the ferry (at 6am!), helped us buy tickets, waited to make sure we got  on board and then arranged a transfer to the airport for us at the other end.  The plane left at around the boarding time again so it’s great that she had done all that for us so we had plenty of time to spare.

Once we had made it to Siargao Island (pronounced “Shar-gow”, one of the most famous surfing destinations in the Philippines), we were shuffled into one of the waiting minivans to “Cloud 9” where all the backpacker resorts are.  On the way we chatted to Jetjet, a local surfing champion (Winner 2009 of the Billabong comp held here each year, we were told at least 4 times)!  He also offered lessons when the waves were small, so I let his marketing work on me and we agreed to meet up later in the afternoon.

My first lesson on actual waves (unlike the puddle at Baler) was tougher than I thought it would be!  I got nowhere near standing up and couldn’t even get my feet in the right position.  I had decided that my arms were too short for my legs, but agreed to give it another go in the morning.  I spent part of that night trying to work out some standing up techniques as the technique I was shown by Jetjet didn’t even work on land!  Matt had a surf too, but described his experience as “largely crash and burn” so it was unsuccessful day all round!

  
The view from our room.

Day 280 – Surf, eat, nap, eat, surf, eat, sleep!

Up bright and sparky at 5.30am for my next lesson, I was determined to give my new technique of getting to one knee first a go, instead of the Twister move Jetjet wanted me to do.  I saw a lot of the other girls using it and it was marginally more successful as I stood up briefly once or twice.  I thought Jetjet would be happy, but instead he cracked it!  He said I would never be a good surfer if I did it like that!!  He insisted I go back to his technique and keep trying.  My mind was saying that he obviously knows something about surfing but then he’s 5 and a half feet and ripped, easy to say when you’re not 5’9” and frustratingly unfit!  Matt was much more successful this morning and looked really good in the clean breaking aqua waves.  I would even go so far as to say he looked cool… which is unusual for him!

Between the morning and afternoon sessions we had something to eat and a nap and then it was time to ask the all knowing Google, YouTube…oh and Matt for some help.  I showed Matt the three step move I was told to do by Jetjet and he showed me the one fluid motion I was eventually aiming for.  Turns out that skipping the steps and heading straight for the end product was the only way for me to get up!  That afternoon, there was much less wave eating and a few more successful wave rides, just briefly.  

The relaxation hut at our accommodation Ocean 101.

Matt enjoying said hut.

 

Day 281 – Pain in the …face?

This morning I woke up in agony.  I had been fighting a slight sinus infection after diving so many days in a row, but it wasn’t bothering me or my balance – until now!  The pain in my cheeks and teeth and the attached headache was so bad there would be no surfing this morning.  I sent Matt off to deliver the message to Jetjet on his way to the waves and went back to bed.

Matt on the other hand was feeling more comfortable on bigger waves and swapped to a board more like the one he has at home.  After breakfast, more reading and napping for both of us, Matt went back for the afternoon set.  I went out a bit later to take some photos, but he was already coming back in complaining the waves were crappy this afternoon.

 
A pier has been built out over the reef so it is easier to get in and out of the water and also provides for a viewing platform for when comps are on.

However, the boardwalk needed a little repairing.  Only a day after we arrived they began these repairs, but that left us balancing on planks of wood spanning up to a 3 or 4 metre gap with surf board under arm instead!

Day 282 – Crowd 9

The day off and early night must have worked for me as this morning (and with a little push from Jetjet) I was catching and getting up much more consistently, even if unstylishly.  After Matt’s sleep in he came down to take some pictures of my efforts:

Up but not stylishly!

 

As I was still feeling unwell, we hired a bike and drove into Dapa, the bigger town about 30km away, to get some drugs for my sinuses and a haircut for Matt.  The best we could get were some decongestants, but that teamed up with some painkillers seemed to be enough to get me back on a surf board.

As we still had a bit of extra time on the way back from Dapa, we decided to head back a different way to the way we came.  Actually, more like Matt’s eyes lit up at the fork in the road just outside Dapa, (the way we came vs. dirt) and I couldn’t say no.  He assured me that the dirt road went back to Cloud 9 and that it followed the coast the long way.  I learn this lesson time and time again, but that’s what I get for being married to an explorer.

So we ended up in Pilar, on the other side of the island and at a dead end with no choice but to reverse the route back to the fork in the road.  We also made it there at about the time we were supposed to have the bike back to the guy we borrowed it from and so as if the dirt roads weren’t scary enough, I had to keep telling Matt to slow down all the way back (mostly by pinching him when I could see the speedo tick over 60!).  The guy didn’t seem too fussed about us being late (Filipino time must still exist in small towns, just not airlines) and we even had time for a short nap before the afternoon session of surfing, which had been getting later with the tides.  The waves here are all reef breaks and at low tide there is only about a foot of water under the waves – not good for learning! 

This afternoon was great for both of us and I was especially happy that I could get up now and ride for a decent amount of time… I just needed to work on my direction a bit as I ran into a few people!  Cloud 9 had turned into a bit more like “Crowd 9” with the amount of people out today and it was getting frustrating now that I had graduated to the big kid’s wave and was actually catching waves to have the local heroes cut in front leaving me with no choice but to bail.  The instructors were frustrated as well and would yell out to them to get out the way if it was a wave they thought would be good for us and they seemed to respect that.  Matt on the other hand didn’t have anyone to yell at them for him and was quite frustrated with one particular guy that seemed to be on every wave he went for. 

That night we chatted again with the little group of seven we had seemed to have formed in the restaurant attached to the resort.  The other five had decided to do the “Island Hopping” tour organised by the hotel in the morning.  We initially weren’t keen, especially now I was getting somewhere with the surfing, but agreed very late in the evening that a morning off surfing would be good, especially for my aching muscles.

 

Day 283 – Island Hopping

We were up just after 6, ready for our 7am departure on the island hopping tour.  The main aim of the day was a change of scenery and some sun, as well as some snorkelling at one of the islands.  The 7am departure was more like 8.30 or 9 by the time the boat man arrived, we waited for our take-away lunch to be cooked and scavenged some snorkels (given they weren’t provided by the tour!).

Playing games while waiting for the boatman.

Our first destination was Guyam Island.  About 100m across, the highlights were the crystal clear aqua water and a huge dead sea snake on the beach.  Matt and Manu, our new Indian Swedish friend did a lap of the island with the snorkels but only saw some fish.  After a bit of time swimming, we signalled the boatman and were off to Naked Island.

Guyam Island

Naked Island is just that.  A sandbar in the middle of nowhere with no trees!  The book suggested is may also be a nudist island if you so wished as it would only be the boatman watching you.  Yeah sure!

Last but not least was Daku, a much bigger island that was actually inhabited.  The beach here was quite nice even though the sand was coarse and we spent the afternoon in one of the beach shelters eating lunch, reading, chatting, and listening to the French girl Natalie’s songs on the ukulele, including her favourite (and Matt’s absolute least favourite) Poker Face acoustic style.  A very pleasant day with some excellent tan lines to match.

Natalie and her ukulele gathering some local interest (the old lady watching over her right shoulder, who earlier was picking up shells off the beach to try and sell to us).

The view from our beach hut.

Matt trying to capture the reflection in my sunnies without getting himself in the shot!

The beach huts.

A local inhabitant.

We made it back to Cloud 9 in time for the afternoon session.  Matt opted to hit the bar while I opted to take advantage of the last hour of daylight.  I shouldn’t have bothered as after a day in the sun I was way too exhausted and so didn’t go very well!

Day 284 - Get up, stand up

This morning’s session was much quieter than it gets in the afternoon, well and truly worth getting up early for.  Again I was catching almost everything, but still needed to work on my direction a bit more.  I was getting the hang of how to use weight to steer though.  Baby steps!  Matt had a good morning too, although the board he had borrowed was missing the middle fin so may have done better if they bothered to fix it like they said they would.

The instructors sang this a lot as they stood in a line almost neck high helping us catch waves.

After two hours in the water, it was back to 101 Ocean Resort to continue with our daily routine – eat, nap, eat, read and then back to the surf.  My instructor Jetjet had asked me to pay up to today this morning as there was a big cock fight that afternoon that his cock “Red Chicken” was entered into.  Glad to see my hard earned bucks are going to good use!  He invited us to come, but I politely declined.

I headed down to the pier at 5pm for the afternoon session, but Jetjet was nowhere to be found.  Normally he spots me before I spot him and comes in from the surf.  I asked around his mates and everyone said he was still at the cockfight!  Should have known!  So turns out I was stood up. 

I watched Matt for a hour or so from the viewing platform.  A 12 year old local girl MayMay sparked up a conversation with me and as well as her life story, she told me all about the surf spots in the area, knew all the pleasantries in about 6 languages (I guess from quizzing foreigners!) and the only thing she wanted in life was her own surf board.  She had pointed out her 17 year old brother to me carving it up in the surf.  Turns out he is sponsored and has at least seven boards, was given a mobile phone and is treated to all kinds of things not many kids around here get.  He had been loaning her a board and teaching her to the point where she came 4th in last year’s junior’s competition.  She had admired one of my bracelets from Peru earlier on in discussions and so I took it off and gave it to her for good luck in this year’s competition, about two weeks away.  Then she said she can’t go in it this year as she had a fight with her brother and he won’t lend her the board!  Poor little thing!  She was only down at the pier because her mum wanted her to sell Biko to the tourists.  Given we had been chatting for about 2 hours and I had answered all of her questions she gave me some (I had no money as I was supposed to be surfing!).  It is basically sweet sticky rice mixed with coconut – tasty! 

Eating biko was all the signal needed for a bunch (at least 10!) of other Filipino tourists standing on the platform to come up to me and start asking questions, firstly about whether I like their food and their country (yes and yes!) and then about all kinds of other things ending in photographs and hugs with all of them and the ladies not being able to get over the fact I was twice their height!  I had to jog back to 101 to catch the second quarter of the footy playing by satellite.  Go dogs!

Day 285 – Watch out Rip Curl Pro

This morning’s session was my best yet.  The waves were clean, I was catching everything, even turning into the right hand break!  Everything was finally clicking.  I graduated to catching my own waves where Jetjet would just tell me which waves to paddle for and not push me into them.  It was a nice feeling after feeling so pathetic on the first day.  Am still not sure how I will go once it’s back to the freezing cold waters of Victoria, but it’s a least worth trying now.  I had hoped that Matt would come down with the camera again, but he slept in… so no evidence.  Damn!

Jetjet was having a good day too.  I asked him first thing “Is Red Chicken still alive??” as there was no point saying “Where were you yesterday?”  Given I knew where he was!  He jumped up and down and told me enthusiastically “Yes!  Red Chicken is the Champion!”  He apologised for not meeting me at the pier.  Because Red Chicken kept winning, he had to stay around for the next fight.  He told me he also won 1,000 pesos ($25AUD), but at 500 pesos an hour from me, failed to see the logic in my cheeky suggestion that he should just teach more to make the same money.  I think he was more after the glory, given the local Mayor was there and shook his hand!

A happy Jetjet.

Given my mammoth morning session of about 2 and a half hours (it’s tiring stuff!), and Matt’s lack of enthusiasm for fighting for the one wave, we spent the rest of the day being lazy.  We chatted with a couple of Aussies, one who was a diver there exploring the area looking to set up a dive resort and shop.  He didn’t seem impressed that the local fisherman still get away with illegal dynamite fishing (understandably for a diver!) and was having meetings with the Mayor (at the cockfight actually…) to try and get something done about it.  He said the Mayor was a reasonable guy and seems to understand what further tourism will do for this mostly untouched island.  A shame for future surfers and divers looking to get off the track a bit.

We had a few beers at the bar across the road, but I was determined to get in one more 6am session in the morning before we left in the morning and so I bailed early. Matt says I didn’t miss much, although Jetjet showed up looking to shout a round!

Day 286 – Amazing Race

Although not as good as the morning before (my paddle muscles were DEAD) I managed to get an hour in before the bus arrived to take us back to the airport and onto Cebu.  Once in Cebu we hit the mall with a few others from the flight to kill time, get lunch and passport photos made for our Vietnam visas.

Siargao Airport.  We laughed at the fire crew who, at the appropriate moment right before a plane comes in, stop playing cards, don oversized jackets and helmets, pile onto the fire truck and drive out onto the tarmac only to have the plane land without bursting into flames so they can go back to their cards.  Matt and I thought they must be pretty disappointed all the time!

Bored with the mall we decided to head back to the airport early.  A lucky decision.  We were there about 4pm for our 6.20pm flight to Manila and told that the flight was delayed at least three hours.  This would have us missing our connection from Manila to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam at 11.20pm.  After working out whether it was better to change the HCMC flight, which we couldn’t or have us miss the connection (leaving us stuck in Manila two days til the next flight, an unpleasant thought) we decided to demand a refund and find another flight.  While Matt did the demanding, I ran around to all the other agencies, Amazing Race style, trying to work out the best and cheapest method to get to Manila asap given we were now going to be out-of-pocket.

I got us the last two tickets on an 8.10pm flight with Philippines Air (tricky given there were others running around doing this too) although when asking the lady if the flight was definitely going to be on time and definitely going to arrive in Manila at 9.30pm (giving us about 20 minutes to check in to the next flight) she ended up doing us one better and getting us on the already closed, boarded and about to taxi 5.15pm flight!  So we had plenty of time to make the connection to Vietnam and were on our way.  On assessment at Manila airport we wouldn’t have made the short connection time anyway as the domestic and international terminal are miles apart and the shuttles frustratingly infrequent.

Bohol

Day 273 – Nuts Huts

This morning we finally posted some postcards that we had been hanging onto for weeks, months even! Very slack. We finally accepted a lift back to the airport from one of the four or five trike drivers that hung out at the hotel entrance asking us if we needed a trike every time we left the building. The guy turned out to be super friendly and had hand written business cards that he gave us so that we could call him next time we were in Puerto Princesa!

Our flight left early, as expected, and the flight hostess proudly announced that we had touched down in Cebu 30 minutes ahead of schedule. We are beginning to think this is a ploy to improve the airlines’ terrible on time record. We got a taxi straight to the docks and were on a ferry without having to wait very long.

I decided to wait until the ferry had pulled out of the dock before telling Erin that ferries were the worst possible form of transport available in the Philippines and that the Australian Government recommend only taking them if its the only option! A ferry holding 5,000 passengers recently sank with no survivors. Scary!

Coming out of the ferry terminal in Tagbilaran we tried to negotiate a ride to the bus terminal, but ended up getting a ride the whole way to our destination instead. Nuts Huts are a collection of wooden cabins strung along the Loboc River in the mountainous jungle interior of Bohol Island. The trike dropped us at the end of the entrance road, 700m long and basically just a rough bush track, we were beginning to wonder if we were lost when we finally got to the entrance. From there hundreds of stairs lead down toward the river, with a beautiful open air restaurant / relaxing area halfway down.

The top set of stairs, the bottom set was just as long. Aside from improving our stair climbing fitness, it also made sure we were sharp in the morning, forgetting something and having to go back to our hut to get it was a major downer!

Out Nuts Hut.

From the restaurant you could look out over the river and the jungle. The sunsets each night were beautiful and when the sun went down the tree just off the balcony was a meeting place for fireflies. Plus they had a good collection of old National Geographic magazines that kept me entertained for hours on end!

Day 274 – Tiny Ewoks

This morning we set out for the Tarsier Sanctuary. These strange creatures are the worlds smallest primates, they are only about 10cm tall but their eyes are massive, 150 times larger than human eyes proportionally speaking. Their closest living relatives are lemurs, but in many ways they resemble tiny monkeys, or my Mum thought perhaps little Ewoks.

To get to the sanctuary we finally used one of the Philippines’ many Jeepneys, basically stretched jeeps with bench seating in the back. They are cheap and they go practically everywhere, many are ornately decorated, but they can get crowded and hot.

When we got to the sanctuary we were pleased to discover that there were only a few other people there. It seems that as the sanctuary only allows a couple of people into the tarsier viewing area at a time the place has stayed off the organised tour route, at least for big groups anyway. There are however many places elsewhere in Bohol with caged tarsiers for tourist viewing. This in combination with capture for the pet trade, deforestation and predation by domestic and feral animals have left the wild tarsier population threatened. To make matters worse caged and pet tarsiers generally die quickly in captivity as their keepers are not able to feed them the live insects they need.

The sanctuary is interesting because although the tarsiers are in a fenced enclosure they are essentially wild. Because they can jump further than their major predators they can clear the fences at night to go out and hunt, then return to the enclosure during the day to sleep and be peered at by curious tourists.

As each tarsier has its own bit of turf in the enclosure the guides generally know where to find them. So once we had waited for the two people in front of us to leave the enclosure (which is a couple of hectares in size) our guide ushered us through the gate and right up to where one of the little critters was sleeping. They were surprising nonplussed about people and just sat in their tree wide eyed while we stood similarly wide-eyed checking them out.

Tarsiers’ eyes are fixed in their skull, so they can pivot their head 180 degrees in either direction like an owl, this just adds to how strange they look.

I tried to get a photo of Erin with one, but this was difficult because they are so tiny and you’re not allowed to get too close. If you look really carefully there is a tarsier about a third of the way up from the bottom of the photo at the far left hand side.

After the tarsier sanctuary we headed back to Nuts Huts and spent the afternoon exploring the surrounds. We swam across the river to the walking path on the other side and walked up through a little village and on to a small waterfall. As we passed through the village most of the people were out on a covered platform in the river, playing guitar and singing. The waterfall wasn’t anything special, but we enjoyed our swim back downstream to Nuts Huts.

Big spider near the waterfall (which we never properly saw).

Day 275 – They’re nice but you can’t eat them

Today’s primary objective was to visit the Chocolate Hills. Along with the tarsiers the Bohol Tourist Board heavily plugs the Chocolate Hills, a collection of oddly shaped hills which turn brown in the dry season, supposedly resembling chocolate drops.

Getting off the bus we had to convince several motorcycle drivers that we were quite content walking the last 15 minutes up to the view point.

There were hundreds of tourists at the viewing point, mostly Filipinos, so I guess all the advertising is working.

In dry season they look more chocolatey apparently.

Rainstorm coming in over the ‘Chocolate Hills Complex’, basically a ring of souvenir shops built on a saddle between two of the hills.

For lunch we headed to the Butterfly Sanctuary in Bilar. After a nice meal looking out over the gardens we were given a tour around the gardens by an enthusiastic young guide.

Special freaky half female, half male butterflies in a display case at the restaurant.

Our final stop for the day was to Logarita Pool, a man made pool fed by a natural spring on the edge of the rice paddies. Our tricycle driver dropped us there (at the end of a road several kilometres out of town) and then disappeared, leaving us wondering if we’d have to walk back to the highway. Instead when it was time to leave we paid for a ride with a local guy on his motorcycle, a bit scary!

One of the locals helped me wet the ‘water slide’, the steep concrete chute you can see at the back left of the photo, so we could have a couple of goes. It was pretty vicious on the behind!

Day 276 – Waiting for the bus

As we got to the end of the Nuts Huts access track it started pouring down, so we scurried into the little shelter by the side of the road where a few of the locals were already sitting out the rain. We were busy chatting to the locals and trying to stay dry, so when the first bus drove past we didn’t have time to get out and signal it. An hour later the rain had finally eased and we made in onto the next bus.

The local kids constructing what I guess you’d call mud bombs. They all jumped out of the trees as we walked the bush path to Nuts Huts yelling “Bomb! Bomb!”

Our plan had been to go to the mall in Tagbilaran (the main town on Bohol) to get some cash and burn DVDs before heading out to Panglao Island to have lunch at an organic farm, the Bohol Bee Farm. But with having missed the bus we were a little behind schedule for lunch and there turned out to be a coffee shop of the Bohol Bee Farm at the mall, so we ate there instead.

By the time we had eaten lunch, looked around the shops, burned DVDs and posted them it was time to get the bus back to Nuts Huts before it got dark, not much of a day in the end but at least we finally got a couple of months worth of photos backed up.

Day 277 - Hung

After extensive research yesterday while the DVDs were burning I’d decided that it was going to be extremely difficult to get from Bohol to Siargao by ferry, and pretty hard to justify given the cheap airfares on offer. So instead of a couple of days getting on and off ferries we opted for a couple of days at the touristy beach resort of Alona.

So after dropping back through the mall to book some flights we got a trike out to Alona and wandered around until we found a nice place to stay. Back from the beach but with a nice pool and friendly staff, plus a hefty off season discount, we opted for the strangely named Mondsee Land Resort. As we went to check in we realised that we had left our document pouches (including passports) in the safe back at Nuts Hut, doh!

We decided to worry about that tomorrow and instead headed out for dinner before returning home to listen to Radio Australia and the Australian Federal Election call. By the time we went to bed at well after midnight Australian time the result was clear, hung.

Day 278 – Retrieval exercise

My job for the day was to retrieve our passports etc. Not thrilled with the idea of getting all the way there and back again by public transport (an all day exercise more or less) I wandered down the street and finally took up an offer to hire a motorcycle (after being pestered for weeks!). Weeks as a passenger had given me rough idea of the road ‘rules’ and I didn’t have to ride through any big cities, so the trip wasn’t too intimidating, and only took me about 3 hours in the end.

Mid afternoon we headed down to the beach to a restaurant serving meat pies, yum (for me anyway, Erin opted for a pizza). The rest of the day we spent lazing around the pool, life’s tough sometimes.

Puerto Princesa

Day 271 – FAIL!

With a 9am flight to catch from Coron to Puerto Princesa we were up early, but not early enough to avoid having to scoff our breakfast in time for our 7am airport shuttle. Of course come 7:30 the shuttle still wasn’t there and we were starting to worry that we wouldn’t make check-in. I finally convinced the girl at the desk to call and find out what was happening, she reported that he was on his way and not to worry. When the guy actually arrived he did look worried, he hurried us out to the van (of which we were the only passengers) and then drove like a madman to get us there with a whole two minutes to spare before check-in closed. This might sound like a lot, but every flight we’ve caught in the Philippines have left early, sometimes by up to 40 minutes, meaning check-in and boarding can close within minutes of one another.

Our day didn’t improve when we got Puerto Princesa. We opted for the guidebook recommended Casa Linda Inn especially because it noted how friendly and helpful the staff were and we knew we’d need some help arranging tomorrow’s trip to the subterranean river. However when we got there the woman on the desk barely said a word to us, instead she seemed peeved that we had upset the game she was playing on the computer. We checked-in anyway figuring that the shift would have to change eventually and she might be replaced by someone more helpful, alas this didn’t happen. (Things got worse that night when it turned out that the two French families staying there had appointed the room next to us the kids’ room and the room on the opposite side of the complex the adults’ room!)

We had all afternoon to spare so we decided to do a job we’d been putting off for a while, burning a backup of our Canada and Japan photos to send home for safe keeping. We walked from one side of town to the other, several kilometres in total, in and out of more than a dozen internet places looking for somewhere with a burner we could use. Several places had burners on their front desk PC but wouldn’t let us use it or plug into it, and when one finally did, their PC refused to recognise our portable disk drive. In the end the exercise was a complete failure except for a lot of exercise in the stinking afternoon heat.

To cap things off we caught a trike across town to Neva’s Place, supposedly the best pizza in town. It was ordinary at best, then any benefits that may have come from our early night were thoroughly negated by the aforementioned French kids. Tomorrow’s another day!

Day 272 – The Subterranean River

First thing we boarded our little tour bus, went and collected the Filipino / Canadian family we’d been paired with for the day and headed for Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park. Quite a mouthful, it’s basically a fairly long stretch of navigable river running though some big caves. With a huge amount of effort the local government has had it short listed to become one of the ‘New 7 Wonders of the World’, it’s nice and all but I think they’re drawing a pretty long bow!

In what seems to becoming a Filipino tradition we arrived well early of our allotted time (boats into the caves are strictly scheduled), so we spent some time lying on the picturesque beach (this turned out the be a mistake, because the really fine white sand was nearly impossible to wash off). We then had lunch (at 10:30am!) before getting on a boat around a couple of coves to the cave entrance.

Sabang Beach.

A fresh coconut to drink from with lunch.

Before heading to the caves we stopped to watch a few monitor lizards rooting around in the undergrowth. This one is a small one apparently, I’m sure Mum would have liked him all the same.

The cave entrance is in a small tidal lagoon behind the first dune.

At the entrance we were all decked out in life vests and coloured hard hats. The girl at the front of the boat got to control the flash light and the park worker at the back steering the boat chastised anyone who lent even slightly to the side. These two facts combined made it very difficult to get a decent photo inside.

As our guide paddled us through the cave he pointed out what I suppose some people must consider interesting features, such as formations resembling vegetables, religious icons, naked women, that sort of thing. After pointing out each thing he would, without fail, say “OK Mam, Sir, we will now continue our sightseeing tour”, he must have said it 50 times in 30 minutes. Apart from ‘interesting’ formations he also talked briefly about the cave’s natural history and history of exploration, topics I found quite a bit more interesting.

Bats sleeping on the ceiling of the cave.

Another tour boat heading past us in the dark. By far the most impressive area we passed through they referred to as St Pauls dome, although slightly smaller than the original, this one has an underground lake, making it very pretty. Even with strong floodlighting, solid ground and a tripod it would have been a challenge to photograph, with just our piddly flash and from our wobbly perch aboard a moving boat it was impossible to capture.

Reputed no more, a cave recently discovered in Mexico has around 20 times more subterranean river.

This afternoon we had another chore to do - upon arrival in the Philippines we were only given 21 days to stay. We could have avoided this by getting a visa before we arrived but we were too disorganised. So now we had to go visit the local immigration office, one room manned by two ladies above a travel agent on the road out of town. The process was only supposed to take 15 minutes but there was a collection of people in front of us with some serious overstays that it was taking the ladies a long time to process. They had a boat and I suspect were thinking of sneaking out of the country without an exit stamp until they realised they might have trouble getting into Malaysia without it. Anyway, eventually she finished with them, we handed over a whopping 3,030 pesos each (A$75) and in turn received our 38 day visa extensions (even though we only needed an extra 6 days).

For dinner we went to Kailui which was both close to our hotel and highly recommended. When we got there we were told we would have to wait for a table, despite it being a Monday night. While we were waiting an Australian guy came past and reassured us it was worth the wait, telling us he believed it was the nicest meal he had had in years anywhere in the world.

With our expectations high we were ushered barefoot (a no shoes rule applies) to our table in the huge open air wooden pavilion. We opted for the set of the day designed to be shared by two. It started with a clam and seaweed soup, not the kind of seaweed you might find in Japanese soup, it looked more like a peppercorn branch and each one popped in your mouth. Main course was a variety of fish and prawns each with their own delicious sauce and dessert was fresh fruit. I mightn’t go so far as to call it the nicest meal we’ve had in years but it was certainly delicious, fresh and somewhat original, not to mention cheap, including beers it was less than 20 Australian Dollars for the two of us.

Erin showing off her fancy seaweed.